Devika Rani

Devika Rani is still remembered even today as the first lady of the Indian screen. The grand niece of Rabindranath Tagore and truly a great beauty, she left for London in the 1920s to study architecture. There she met Himansu Rai and agreed to design the sets of his first production Light of Asia (1925). They got married and after marriage they left for Germany where Rai made A Throw of Dice (1929) in collaboration with Germany's famous UFA Studio. Rai made a bilingual Karma (1933) with Devika Rani in the lead and the two came to India.

Here Rai and Devika Rani set up the famous Bombay Talkies Studio. Under the painstaking supervision of Himansu Rai, it purchased the most modern equipment from Germany. Franz Osten, director and a handful of technicians came down from England and Germany. By 1935, stream of Hindi productions began to emerge from Bombay Talkies Ltd. beginning with Jawani ki Hawa (1935), a murder mystery. Devika Rani played the lead in most of these early productions. Their films were of a high technical standard and had a glossy look to them reminiscent of the films of MGM. (Devika Rani was lit up in a manner not unlike Greta Garbo!)

Devika Rani formed a successful team with Ashok Kumar, which ironically started due to a scandal as she eloped with her hero of Jawani ki Hawa, Najam-ul-Hussain. Rai found her and got her to come back and forgave her but not Hussain and Bombay Talkies Ltd. needed a new leading man. Rai's eyes fell on his laboratory assistant, Ashok Kumar.

The two of them starred in a series of films starting with Jeevan Naiya (1936) but it was Achut Kanya (1936), which capitulated Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar to big time fame. The love story between an untouchable girl and a Brahmin boy was both a critical and commercial success with critics going in raptures over Devika's performance. The Times of India described her acting as...

"…a performance never seen or equalled on the Indian screen. It is absolutely inspired…a real gem of pure acting which places her at the head of India's screen stars, which Garbo herself could hardly surpass."

Going with the trend she even sang her own songs in films with Main Ban ki Chidiya with Ashok Kumar from Achut Kanya remembered till today.

Devika Rani continued acting till 1943 and when Rai died in 1940 she took over the reins at Bombay Talkies. Among her discoveries at Bombay Talkies was Dilip Kumar. But eventually the economics of filmmaking and tussles with other studio executives led her to take voluntary retirement. She married famed Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich and stayed at their huge estate near Bangalore in South India.

For her contribution to Indian Cinema, Devika Rani was the first ever recipient of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1970. She remained in Bangalore till her death in 1994.